Ganga Shreedhar
Ganga is an Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science at the LSE. She is also:
- Co-director of the LSE’s MSc in Behavioural Science programme
- Affiliate of the Department of Geography and Environment
- Associate at LSE’s Inclusion Initiative
Background
Ganga is an applied behavioural and experimental economist studying how to change human behaviour in ways that simultaneously benefit people and the planet. Her research examines how individual and contextual factors motivate environmental and ecological choices across different consumer and citizen lifestyle domains (e.g., diet, food waste, fashion, altruistic actions like giving time and money) and how they can be deployed in behaviourally ‘smart’ informational campaigns, nudges, and incentives to create sustainable habits. She uses experimental and data science methods. She has completed a PhD in Environmental Economics and a Master’s in Public Administration at the LSE, and a Master’s in Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Prior to academia, she worked with the International Food Policy Research Institute on agricultural and food security policy in India, Nepal, China, and Tajikistan.
Current projects include:
- forestLAB: Explores conservation behaviour and attitudes amongst rural and urban communities in Gabon. In partnership with The African Conservation Development Group, LSE’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, Gabon’s National Research Institute and the University of Stirling.
- Tackling Water Scarcity in Kuwait: Promoting sustainable household consumption: Explores the impact of people’s attitudes and beliefs underlying willingness to pay for water conservation and consumption habits in Kuwait. Awarded by LSE’s Middle East Centre Kuwait Programme Research Grant.
- Incentivising Acceptability of Climate Change Mitigation Measures in the GCC: Explores people’s willingness to pay for emissions reduction policies and to adopt associated low-carbon lifestyles in GCC countries in partnership with Canadian University Dubai. Awarded by LSE’s Middle East Centre as part of their LSE Academic Collaboration with Arab Universities Programme.
Research Interests
- Behavioural environmental economics
- Ecological economics
- Environmental Psychology
- Conservation marketing
- Behavioural Public Policy
- Lab and Field experiments
- Consumer and citizen environmental behaviours and habits;
- Nature and wildlife conservation
Research
Research - 2025
Under a changing climate, heatwaves are expected to become more frequent, prolonged and extreme, posing substantial risks to populations around... Read more
This brief from the BASIN project explores how behavioural research can better address complex, ‘wicked’ problems such as inclusive water security and climate adaptation. Read more
Research - 2024
The results of a nationally representative sample of UK residents on their perceptions of heat risk are discussed in this paper, showing the need to fill knowledge gaps and prepare the country better for this hazard. Read more
Over the last several years, the United Kingdom has seen a wave of environmental movements demanding action on the climate... Read more
Recent research has begun to investigate if climate fiction, or cli-fi, can increase people’s support for pro-climate initiatives. Emerging evidence... Read more
Behavioural science has sought to promote pro-environmental behaviours including climate-friendly dietary change, and to reduce travel emissions and excessive wastes.... Read more
Research - 2023
This randomized control trial examines the effect of informational nudges highlighting the monetary or environmental benefits, or co-benefits, of food-saving... Read more
This review focuses on how insights from behavioral and attitudinal studies about heat risk responses can inform communication approaches. Read more
Research - 2022
For effective climate policy, we need both classic and behavioural policies. Green nudges facilitate the effectiveness of a carbon tax... Read more
The authors of this paper examine if short fiction stories about everyday pro-environmental behaviours motivate climate policy support, and individual and collective climate action in a nationally representative experiment Read more
Research - 2021
The authors of this paper examine whether framing motivations as personal or planetary benefits – or both – is more effective at encouraging sustainable actions and promoting positive behavioural spillovers. Read more
In four video stories, this paper explores the impact of varying the type of protagonist species (Elephant and WildDog) and content about the role of humans in causing wildlife loss (Elephant + HumanAction and WildDog + HumanAction) using Facebook A/B split tests. Read more
Banerjee, S., Savani, M. and Shreedhar, G. (2021) ‘Public support for ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ public policies: Review of the evidence’. Journal of Behavioral... Read more
Research - 2020
The authors of this paper examined if a ‘healthy home checklist’ would nudge households to purchase a test for radon – the leading cause of lung cancer after smoking – online, and found the strategy to increase take-up but to a low extent. Read more
This paper investigates if narratives varying the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic affects pro-wildlife conservation outcomes. In a pre-registered online... Read more
Research - 2019
With the aid of a lab experiment, we explored how imperfect monitoring and punishment networks impacted appropriation, punishment and beliefs... Read more
We explored how different types of audio-visual media content impacted charitable donations using a lab experiment. Subjects chose to donate... Read more
Research - 2018
This research investigates how different audio-visual information on conservation influences charitable donation behaviour and emotions. Read more
The unintentional effects that conservation videos requesting financial donations might have on how people act in relation to environmental causes are investigated in this study. Read more
This study simulates an environmental dilemma: a group of individuals sharing a natural resource from which they can individually gain. It shows how network structure impacts social welfare and reveals the cost of exclusively relying on perfect peer monitoring and punishment to enhance cooperation. Read more
Policy
Policy - 2016
This paper explores the potential impact of a uniform £20 per tonne carbon price on fuels and production costs across all 106 industries that comprise the UK economy. Read more
Events
Events - 2023
News
News - 2016
Business Green, 11 January Read more
